The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
Graphical interface design techniques traditionally rely upon modal windows to provide document saving functionality within applications. A “modal window” is a child window of another application window that is generated when the application enters a particular operating mode. Modal windows are often referred to as modal dialogs in that they are used to display dialogs that solicit user input, such as a save dialog.
A problem with using a modal window to facilitate document saving functionality is that modal windows interrupt application workflow. For example, to save a document in an application such as Microsoft Word, a user must navigate to and select a menu item in a toolbar that launches the modal window for the save dialog. The user must then wait for the application to launch the modal window. The modal window for the save dialog then appears over the main application window, and the user cannot edit a document or perform any other function with the application until the save operation is complete. To complete the operation, the user must select a folder in which to save the document and a filename for the document, then click a button to trigger the save operation.
Because save operations interrupt an application's workflow, it is inefficient for users to save their work. This inefficiency is especially pronounced when new or different filenames are frequently required.
In one approach, once a filename has been identified, save dialogs typically “remember” the filename, so as to cut down on the amount of work required of a user. However, the application must still launch a modal window for the save dialog. The delay between a user selecting the menu item and the modal window appearing can often be one of the biggest sources of inefficiency in the save process. Furthermore, the modal window still interrupts the workflow of the main application window.
In another approach, shortcut keys facilitate rapid saving of a document under the same filename. However, the user must still launch a save dialog in a modal window when the document does not have a name, or when the user wants to change the name.
A similar problem exists in interfaces for managing access rights for a document. Document access control operations in graphical interfaces are inefficient in that they traditionally require a user to navigate through complex menus and modal windows. Furthermore, it is often not apparent to a user that it is even possible to control the level of access that other users will have to their documents. Therefore, many users fail to properly protect access to their documents.